Blue Bell Expands Recall to Include All Products Amid Listeria Scares

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Blue Bell Ice Cream announced last week that the company has extended an existing recall to include all of its products. The company issued a recall earlier this month after a health risk was discovered in half-gallon units of the company’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream that were manufactured on March 17 and 27, according to USA Today.

The company expanded the recall to include all products made at their Brenham, TX and Broken Arrow, OK facilities, which includes products like ice cream, sherbet, frozen yogurt, and frozen snacks. The expanded recall was announced after Blue Bell’s investigations found positive evidence of listeria in different products and locations.

According to ABC News, three people have died from consuming Blue Bell products that were contaminated with listeria.

Listeria is a bacteria that poses the most risk to children, elderly people, and pregnant women. It is generally contracted by humans through the consumption of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The bacteria live in animals’ digestive tracts and can contaminate foods in a number of different ways.

Blue Bell’s announcement of the expanded recall came just after Sabra Dipping Company announced a recall for their hummus due to listeria contamination. USA Today reported on April 9 that the recall included 30,000 cases of Sabra’s Classic Flavor hummus.

The contamination was discovered after routine inspections. As of April 9, there had been no reported cases of illness, and Sabra has been working with the Food and Drug Administration.

Cases like these can fall under the area of law referred to as product liability, which has the second-highest median damage awards of any type of personal injury case at $300,000. In cases of food contamination, it’s generally a matter of unsafe or unsanitary manufacturing practices.